Sunday: You Have Come to Mount Zion
Read Hebrews 12:22-24. What does Paul describe here?
Hebrews affirms that we have come to Mount Zion and participate in a great celebration. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering” (Hebrews 12:22, ESV).
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We have come through faith in the person of our representative, Jesus. In this celebration we find an innumerable host of angels, God Himself, and Jesus, who is the center of the celebration. We come as part of the “assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23, ESV). Our names are enrolled in the books of heaven, where God’s professed people are listed (Exodus 32:32, Psalm 56:8, Daniel 12:1, Malachi 3:16, Luke 10:20, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8).
We are the “firstborn” because we share the inheritance of the Firstborn par excellence, Jesus (Hebrews 1:6). Thus, we have come not as guests but as citizens (compare with Philippians 3:20). We are also described as “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23, ESV). This expression is a figure of speech in which a dimension of our human nature stands for the whole. It is analogous to the expression “the Father of spirits” in Hebrews 12:9, which refers to God as the Father of us all, human beings who are spiritual in nature.
The festal gathering celebrates the inauguration of Jesus’ kingly rule, priestly ministry, and the inauguration of the new covenant. In Hebrews, Mount Zion is the place where all these events take place. Three of the psalms in Hebrews 1:5-14 describe the enthronement of the Son and have Mount Zion as the place where it occurred (Psalm 2:6, ; Psalm 110:1, ; Psalm 102:21-27).
Mount Zion is also the place where the Son was appointed “priest forever” (Hebrews 5:6), a quotation of Psalm 110:4. According to Psalm 110, the appointment of the Son as High Priest occurs at Mount Zion, as well (Psalm 110:2). Finally, Hebrews argues that the inauguration of Jesus’ priesthood also marks the inauguration of the new covenant (Hebrews 7:11-22). Thus, Mount Zion is also the place where the new covenant was ratified. Hebrews 12:22-24 describes, then, the festal gathering that occurred in heaven when Jesus ascended.
| In what practical ways can we celebrate the reality of Jesus, His priestly ministry, and the New Covenant in our lives and in our worship? Why is rejoicing in this great truth faith-affirming? |
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What an important question? Is my name written in the Book of Life or has it been blotted out?
Or have my sins been blotted out?
I pray with David
Have mercy on me,O God,
according to Your loving devotion;
according to Your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me clean of my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
Hide Your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence;
take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Jesus said to His disciples - do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Peter said - Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out
So the critical question - what remains in the books of heaven at the end of my life - my name or my sins?
I do believe that practical ways depicts physical reality. We can help the widows, the naked and hungry, the homeless, the destitute, and others in need. We can encourage, enlighten, smile, and be a friend. Zechariah 7:9-10. Matthew 25:37-40. James 1:27.
Studying the scripture related to today's lesson, I find that the writer of Hebrews compares the experience of meeting God most Powerful at Mt.Sinai – Heb.12:18-21 -, with meeting God the Father at Mt.Sion – Heb.12:22-24.
Heb.12:25KJV - ”See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.”
As I understand the Scripture, these passages compare the severity of the experience when meeting God under the law, with the experience when meeting God the Father who chastens his children under Grace – loving, stern justice vs. loving justice under Grace – Heb.12:6-13.
Yes, we have come to Mt.Sion – the Mount of Grace through Faith. Ours is the ‘Spirit of the Light of Truth’ - the blessing of understanding the ‘Will of the Father’, which generations of believers who came before us hoped to live by.
Yes, we have come to Mt.Sion – the Fathers’ Grace – , were the law is written into the heart and mind of the believer, were the New Covenant mediated for us by His Son is available to all who believe.
As the Son of God took the form of the man, Jesus lived His life to teach the Gospel Truth of the Father’s kingdom to mankind. And this is the evidence of the Father's kingdom, that He loves His Children: His faith-children show their love of their Father by loving one another and their neighbor!
Ours are the praises of thanksgiving for true life imparted to us by faith; having believed that the Father loves His children and His Son, in the body of man, becoming the first-fruit to demonstrate the fulfillment of the Father's promise of life everlasting when combining Love and Faith.
The reason that Jesus sacrifice speaks better things than that of Abel is that Abel's sacrifice was just a type of Jesus and ours is the "Antitype" of that very thing and the antitype of any symbol is always better than the symbol itself.
Hi Pete, Did Abel sacrifice a lamb or himself?
Only Jesus' Sacrifice for us can give us "Eternal Life." Abel sacrificed himself at the hand of his own brother but not willingly, but this did not give Abel eternal life at all, nor did it give him any other righteous standing before God either to give him the righteousness that only his faith in God the way Abrahams' faith was counted as righteous too. Abraham knew nothing of God's own Son Jesus in his behalf nor did he know the 10 commandments the way Moses did at Mount Sinai when God counted Abraham's faith in Him (God) as rigteousness. At this point in Abraham's life, God had only promised Abraham Canaan for a possession. And here is where the Apostle Paul says that the Sacrifice of Jesus says better things than that of Abel's. Only Jesus Sacrifice can give us eternal life and also truly sanctify us too and Jesus is the antitype of what Abel sacrificed when he sacficed his "lamb," and himself at the hand of his brother Cain.
Pete, would you be so kind as to cite the evidence for your conclusion that Abel sacrificed himself?
The Genesis story reads very much like the first murder - Cain murdered his brother Abel "Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." (1 John 3:12 KJV)
In faith Abel sacrificed a lamb which typified the Messiah who would die for him, while Cain brought the work to the of his own hands. Abel's sacrifice was better than Cain's because it demonstrated faith. That's why the Lord recognized Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's.
Christ's self-sacrifice was the fulfillment of all the lamb sacrifices offered in faith.
Inge Anderson, I was only answering, Shirley DeBeer's question about Abel's sacrificing himself. And the answer is that Abel did at the hand of his brother Cain but not intentionally or willingly but because his brother Cain could not accept his brother Abel's better character etc. and to answer you request for me to cite my evidence of this is just very simple: Read the account in Genesis of this very fact of Cain and Abel's dealing with each other and how God accepted Abel's offering but not his brother Cain's.
Interesting point: The korbanot (sacrifice) offered by Able was a prototype of what was to come. Only because of his sin nature it was insufficient even though it met the physical requirement of spotless and blameless. Where Yeshua was perfect born without sin (2Cor 5:21) his perfection made the korbanot he offered a better sacrifice.